Project: Hokage
by DhampyrX2
Summary: Sometimes you learn it's not a good thing when all you dream come true.


Title: Project: Hokage

Author: DhampyrX2

Genre: Drama

Rating: PG-13

Disclaimer: I don't own these characters. Don't sue me, I'm poor.

Summary: Sometimes you learn it's not a good thing when all you dream come true.  
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_Indicates thoughts_

"Indicates speech"

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"_I present to you, your Rokudaime Hokage, Uzumaki Naruto_!"

The words still rang in the current Hogage of Konoha's ears after all his years in office. Naruto had been the Hokage for over a decade. He had staved off invasions from Iwa, Kumo, and Kiri in his tenure as the supreme leader and protector of his home village. A village he had come to love.

A village he would always despise.

Some would say the dichotomy of emotions stemmed from Naruto's unwilling tenant in the form of the Kyuubi no Kitsune that had been sealed within him by his own father, the Yondaime Hokage Namikaze Minato.

They would be right, but also oh so wrong.

As he had many times since he discovered it, Naruto was in his private estate perusing a project his father had started in the Yondaime's second year as Hokage. It was titled, ironically enough, "Project: Hokage."

The outline of the plan was simple, to prevent the dissention and confusion that the choice between Minato and Orochimaru had caused it was proposed that a more clear line of succession be established. Koharu and Homura had meant a list of candidates in order when they proposed it to their teammate's successor.

Minato decided to think outside of the box instead.

His plan was to create a successor from the ground up. A perfect Hokage to take the mantle when he was gone. Through an agonizing collaboration of selective breeding, specially ordered situations, and outright manipulation he had succeded.

Naruto would always hate the man for that.

About the only thing Minato did that seemed altruistic was to take in the refugees of Whirlpool and integrate them into Konoha. Of course when you looked at it, it really went back to selective breeding and Naruto couldn't even give the man that. He had chosen and seduced Uzumaki Kushina, Naruto's mother, based on genetic charts and favorable blood markers. The Hokage had no room in his life for real romance, after all. Just enough time to fake it for a starry eyes and optimistic Jounin and heir to a fallen nation.

Of course the selective breeding wasn't the worst of things in the files. Not by half. It just revealed his father was a colder bastard than all the Hyuuga put together. No the truly sickening things came later. Like the journal with years worth of seal research, research that predated Minato even MEETING Kushina. Seals that led to Naruto's own altered Shiki Fujin.

There was the research on the Kyuubi itself as well, including what tended to attract the demon's attention historically, and on Jinchuuriki in general, with notes like "too unstable" and "offspring suggested the emergence of a new bloodline until the clan was wiped out in the first Shinobi war," writted in the margins nest to other notes. The most disturbing thing, though, was the list of names written next to Naruto's own. Especially when one considered **Namikaze** Naruto, as it was written in the notes, had not even been conceived much less born. Those names included Haruno, Yamanaka, Uchiha, Hyuuga, Nara, and even Hatake. (Along with a crude drawing of a young teenage Kakashi holding a white-haired baby while a young woman that looked to have Inuzuka cheek stripes was whacking him on the head with a rolling pin. If nothing else it proved the bastard had a small sense of humor.)

It proved one thing; Minato had even been plotting out the best choices of a girl to MATE with Naruto before he was born. The eventual circling of the name Haruno still made Naruto break out in a cold sweat.

It was the final notes of the file, the instructions on what was to happen after Minato was dead that truly angered the Rokudaime, though. They were a credible, if light on detail, outline of Naruto's entire life, minus the bumps any shinobi might encounter, such as the Wave mission. They were his father's directions on what to do to make certain Naruto became Hokage.

The first was an order for Uchiha Fugaku to use genjutsu to place a deep seated subliminal desire for the office in Naruto from the time he was born. This continued until, judging by the logs kept in the file, Itachi had slaughtered the Uchiha clan. After all it wouldn't pay to have another Asuma who did not wish to follow in his father's footsteps.

Then there was the orders for Sarutobi to take over and do everything he could to see Naruto was isolated socially. After all, a Hokage should be humble. And just think how much the friendships he would forge under Minato's own student, Hatake Kakashi, would mean if the test subject had only the Hokage himself to rely on and look up to.

Well, the Hokage and Kakashi's former ANBU division head, Ichiraku Teuchi. Subtle nudges here and there might be needed after all to keep Naruto on the path.

But a mother might be too much of a softening influence and spoil the results of their planning. Especially one who did not agree with the plots her lover had been hatching. And thus Uzumaki Kushina died giving birth to her only son. At least that's what Kabuto's father had recorded as head of the medic-nins when he discovered her dead. If the full truth of the situation had been recorded in the file… well Konoha's most successful ramen stand would have been under new management.

There were instructions for Jiraiya, who had been ordained Naruto's keeper by Minato in the files, but it was clear ero-sennin had ignored them all save teaching Naruto to summon and how to utilize the Rasengan. The careful list of deadly jutsu and tactical training that should have been forced into Naruto's head was ignored in favor of letting him grow in his own way. It wasn't elegant, or even that smart, but it was pure Jiraiya. Naruto would always smile at the thought of that act of defiance.

Finally there was a list of long term missions laid out in a timeline with titles such as "Academy Betrayal," "Chuunin Exam," "ROOT," and "Nagato's Back-up."

Yes, the true purpose of the Akatsuki was to eliminate or control the other eight bijuu so that Naruto would become the strongest shinobi alive be default. And if the child did not meet expectations, Nagato, or Pein he would later be known, could still move forward with the rather silly plans being headed by Uchiha Obito. Namely kill Naruto, take the Kyuubi and reform the Leaf under the strength of the nine bijuu. Granted it would lack the clear line of succession and popularity of the first plan if it had to be done, but it still had made a good back-up plan in Minato's opinion.

And there it sat, from before his birth to his final confrontation with Obito and Nagato. The story of his life. The worst thing is it had succeeded spectacularly. As much as he hated how he had become Hokage, and even WHY he had become Hokage, Naruto still stood there in defense of his village. He still was utterly devoted to his precious people. Hell he even forgave Kakashi on some levels. After all it's not a Hokage's place to hold such a grudge.

His musings on the dreaded file were cut short by the gentle knock of his personal secretary outside the door of the Hokage's private library.

"Hokage-sama, the head of the Hyuuga is here to discuss the new reconnaissance schedules with you," the young women announced politely.

"Tell Hinata-chan I'll be there in a second, Karin. Dattebayo," The Hokage replied.

"Very good sir," the secretary replied before leaving to deliver her boss' message.

"You may have won you bastards, but we still do things here MY way. Not yours," Naruto growled as he sealed back up and returned the project notes to their hiding place before making his way out the door. As he usually did when exiting the study alone, the Hokage took the time to flip off the pictures of the Sandaime and Yondaime mounted on the walls before heading back off to work. He had a village to run after all.

FIN


End file.
